Shirley Clark and her daughter Gillian Carlson transferred funds to Oyedapo after finding the flat on Sublet.com. But they discovered it did not exist after going to collect the keys.

Attempts to contact a man called Michael Smith, the alleged landlord, were fruitless.

Oyedapo, of Selkirk Road, Astley Bridge, was arrested in England after getting off a flight from America.

He claims a transaction of £3,850 was put into his account around the time of the alleged fraud because he had sold a large, signed Al Pacino picture over eBay.

Oyedapo said: “He (the buyer) realised the money was too much for the goods I was selling and he wasn’t interested any more. I said to him ‘the money is in my hand what am going to do now?’ He said he wanted the money back.”

At Bolton Crown Court the jury of four women and eight men heard the buyer, allegedly called Paul Dawson, said he would allow the defendant to keep £100 but would get someone to collect the money.

Related links

The money was collected by two men in a blue BMW after they met the defendant at the University of Bolton, the court heard.

He added: “I handed over the money. After they left Paul texted me saying thanks very much for everything, sorry for the inconvenience. I had no contact with him after that. I didn’t know it was criminal money, I didn’t suspect.”

Oyedapo told the jury he later sold the picture to someone in America.

Aoife Duhan, from eBay, previously told the jury that in the last six years Oyedapo’s magnus4world account had listed six items for sale — and an Al Pacino picture was not one of those for sale.